Playoffs? Playoffs!

As you awaken yourself from your likely alcohol-induced slumber, rubbing your eyes and rewatching clips of Joe Flacco getting clubbed in the face and Jerome Ford rumbling to the goalline with Marquis Goodwin launching himself at would-be tacklers, know that it wasn't a dream. The 2023 Cleveland Browns, all 26+% of their cap on the IR, down to QB4 on the season, and without the Amazing Amari's Flying Circus on display, clinched a playoff spot at home in front of a raucous stadium of fans. There will be at least a postseason game for this squad in 2024. Amazing.The how they have done it is astonishing. A smothering defense that plays with such flexibility to find just the right way to attack your gameplan. A passing game that looks completely different from what what we saw in the early games, partly by design and partly due to the Ship of Theseus patch job that has been necessary for an offense that has gone through more different fits than your newly/only single friend Sunday night before the New Year's Eve party. A run game on life support that was resurrected for its first 100-yard game in the last four.I'll let others like Jake Burns, Dan Orlovsky, or Brian Baldinger tell you the hows and whys of how it got done. I'm just here to revel in the moment with you all at this wondrously impossible yet happening achievement. I joked on the WFNY BrownsCast this week that with the sheer amount of things this team has gone through injury-wise, the oddity of David Njoku setting himself on fire on a Friday night and then playing on Sunday after wearing a skin-tight mask and a mink coat with no shirt into the stadium is but a funny little anecdote that is barely featured on the year-end slideshow with Green Day's "Good Riddance" playing in the background.To borrow a phrase from the outgoing owner of the Cleveland Guardians: enjoy it. As a lifelong Browns fan, this is the most fun team I've had the privilege of rooting for and it's truly because of the personalities on the roster. The trio of corners, Denzel Ward, Greg Newsome, and MJ Emerson, that have hardened into one of the toughest position groups in the league and truly root for each other on every play. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Sione Takitaki stepping into leadership roles that are above their draft status and showing out each week on the field. Za'Darius Smith, Shelby Harris, and Myles Garrett clowning on each other for their celebrations. And of course, who can't love the fact that enemy-turned-hero Flacco is in the middle of it all, coming in as a steadying presence while also putting up Madden numbers like never before?The Browns cannot be lower than the 5th seed in the AFC playoffs and have outside chances at doing better with help. A Baltimore loss on Sunday keeps Cleveland in the conversation for the division title, and if Cleveland wins Week 18 in Cincinnati while Baltimore loses at home to the Pittsburgh Rudolphs to end the season, Cleveland gets the second seed and a home playoff game. Throw a Miami loss on Week 18 and Cleveland gets homefield and a bye week. But that's for Sunday. Today is a day of celebration in Cleveland, and your boys are in the playoffs. Soak it in, Browns fan...we all know it doesn't happen often enough.